A combined engineering and education class at the University of Oklahoma: Preparing authentic science and math educators

One result of the receipt of a National Science Foundation Graduate K-12 Fellows grant at the University of Oklahoma is a combined engineering and education class. The goal of this upper division or graduate credit course is to prepare authentic science and math educators by providing both the educational theory and the scientific knowledge to prepare authentic classroom exercises in the K-12 environment. This paper reviews the course demographics, goals, content, and execution of the first offering of this course in fall of 2001. A discussion of the combination of education majors with engineering majors and a presentation of a combined curriculum is presented. This course is not only a model for other NSF GK-12 projects, but other universities interested in bridging the gap between education and engineering.